This article is a guide for those interested in or just starting out creating decks of Boom Cards either to use with their own students or to sell in the Boom Store and other market places.  


Note that the free trial Starter Membership will allow you to create a limited number of decks on your account while the Publisher Membership allows you to sell the decks you create. For more information on the different membership levels, please read through our join page, linked here and then select the membership level that is right for you.


Those interested in selling the decks of Boom Cards they create should have a look at our New Author Quick Start Guide.


TABLE OF CONTENTS




To get started making your own Boom Cards, go to the Studio tab. 

 

If you intend to publish your decks for public use (either for sale or as a free resource), please see our New Author Quick Start Guide for steps on how to set up your store. 


Scroll down to the bottom of the Studio and click on "Decks" under the Asset Managers section. 




You will be prompted to create a Pen Name if you haven't already. You can find information about Pen names and what they are in this article: Pen Names: Author Name, Store Name, Brand


When you first click +New Deck, a pre made deck called "Get Started Creating Boom Cards" will open. 



This deck will walk you through the basic tools and give you a chance to play around with them any time you need. Once you have a handle on the basics. To start making your own deck from scratch, click on the blue "New Deck" button. 



On the far left-hand side of the screen, you'll see all the cards in your deck. You can open up a dedicated window to review and edit them by clicking the window icon near the "Template Card" text.



This will open a new mini-window where you can see all of the cards in your deck. From this window, you have access to all of the same features that the standard slide sorter panel has. 


The Slide Sorter allows you to:

  • Add new cards to your deck
  • Create a new card from an image (generates a card with a background image of your choosing)
  • Duplicate existing cards
  • Delete existing cards
  • Rearrange the order of the cards in your deck (drag and drop the cards to rearrange them)

All of the card settings can be seen as icons in the top right to the Slide Sorter panel.



The first card you'll see is your Template card. Anything you add to the template card will appear on every card in the rest of your deck. We recommend using this card to apply a background or other elements that you'd like to have uniform throughout your deck. 


Next to this, you'll find a thin, blue toolbar. Here, you have the options to add text, buttons, images, and different answer options in the thin blue bar towards the left.



For more information about the types of answer options, you can use in Boom Cards, check out our FAQ: What answer types are there? Does every card need to have a question? 


In the center of your screen is your actual card, where you'll be placing all your buttons, images, questions, and answer options. To the right of this, you'll find another blue toolbar with a few different sections and many options to help you create and edit everything you add to your Boom Card. 



The Answer Options section is where you can both see and modify whether any given answer option is flagged as correct or wrong. 


Any time you create multiple answer options for a student to respond with, you will need to pay attention to which options are marked as correct or wrong. To change whether an option is correct or wrong, simply select the answer option and then click on either "correct" or "wrong" to set how that option will be graded. 



You'll notice a red border outlining any and all answer options which are marked as wrong and a green border around any that have been marked as correct.  


The option to Outline your answer will appear next to the Correct and Wrong options once you have an answer option selected. 

By default, an outline will appear showing students if the option was correct or not. You can remove that outline by selecting the answer option and then clicking on "Outline" to remove it. Similarly, you can click to put the outline back if you change your mind. 


The Drag/Drop Options section is where you find the tools to flag an option as a drop zone and how you make an item draggable so that it can be moved and placed in the drop zone. 


Using Drop Zones in Boom Cards from Boom Learning on Vimeo.


This section works together with the answer options when you create drag and drop style answers. 

For example, once you've made several possible answers that are all draggable and created a drop zone for them, you can flag the correct option(s) as correct, and the incorrect option(s) as wrong. This way, students are able to select and move any of the options, but only moving the correct one into the drop zone will mark their answer as correct for that card. 


In our other FAQs, you can learn how to Create Multiple "Correct" Drop Zones on One Card here, or get help Troubleshooting Drag and Drop issues. 


Under the Copy/Delete section, you can Duplicate or Delete an item on your card. 


For instance, if you would like multiple of the same image, you can select the image and click duplicate until you have generated the number of copies you would like. If you create too many or wish to remove an image, you simply click select the item you want to be removed and click delete.


You can use the Position, Size and Rotate, Center, and Align tools to adjust where buttons, images, and text appear on the card.




To learn more about the Z-Order feature, read through our FAQ: Z-Order - Moving Objects in Front of or Behind Other Objects.



The Lock feature (under "Item") allows you to lock an object in place. By default, objects will be locked unless they are made draggable.



The Border feature allows you to change details, such as the color and width, of the border. Similarly, the background feature allows you to edit the background image and color of an object. 




You can add alt text to your images using the image properties panel click on "Accessibility Text."


Screen readers will read the ALT text of the image, allowing the student to understand the image's content or its context in the card. Without descriptive text, the program may skip the image altogether or offer a notice to the user that no description is offered.


For more information about adding accessibility to your deck, read this article: Making your Self-Made Boom Decks Accessible


Additional Tools, Tips, and Resources


Decks will default to a randomized presentation of the cards. This can be turned off, or back on in the Details menu. For additional details and steps, please see our FAQ: Randomizing Features. 


Likewise, all decks have a default set of sounds: a "ding" for correct answers as well as a "whoops" for incorrect answers. Those with either the Publisher or Premium memberships can create decks with their own customized sounds. For more information on the whole process, from recording to adding those recordings to your cards, check out our video below:


Adding Sound to Boom Cards from Boom Learning on Vimeo.


For steps on adding a drag/drop picture with a caption or to create other more elaborate items on your cards, see our FAQ: Advanced Containers. 


You can find information on image editing in: How to Crop an Image or How to Fix Rotated Images. Once you start uploading images, things may get messy. Check out our FAQ Managing Images in your Studio for tips on how to quell the chaos. 


To finish the look of your deck, you'll want to create an identifiable and informative cover. This is especially true if you intend to sell your deck - you'll want a professional cover image that conveys exactly what the deck covers. Take a look at our FAQ: Making a Cover Image for tips. We also have a troubleshooting guide to help Prevent Blurry Images.


If you'd like to make simple rectangles, squares, and circles, watch the video below: 


Make Shapes Using the Text Tool from Boom Learning on Vimeo.


We also have an FAQ that shows you how to add a special symbol or character which will teach you how to add an on-screen keyboard for math and foreign language cards. 


And if you'd like to add a video to your Boom Card, please read our FAQ on Adding Video first for guidelines and steps.



Collaborate with other Creators


Adding images to your Boom Cards makes them more accessible and inviting. You can use photographs of real items, draw your own art, or find ready-made images such as clipart. A list of font, clip art, and voice over artists who have given their permission for their products to be used on Boom Learning is available here.


Just don't forget to cite your sources by Acknowledging Artists and Font Authors.


You may also find it helpful to join our Facebook group for Creating Boom Cards. There you can ask questions and learn or share tips and tricks with other creators. It is also a great place to brainstorm and collaborate when you need to troubleshoot or want to try out a creative new style of Boom Cards.   



Publishing Your Finished Boom Cards Deck


Once you've published a deck (either privately or for sale), you'll be able to assign it to your students or share it with fellow educators. The deck doesn't have to be perfect for you to hit publish either- see Editing Published Decks for details.


If you would like to publish your decks for sale in the store, please check out our Quick Start Guide for Authors: Learn to Sell Boom Cards, and then read through FAQs: Quality over Quantity - Publish to the Store, Logos, Badges, Trademarks, and Service Marks, and Selling on Other Marketplaces if you are thinking of offering those decks outside of the Boom Store as well. 


Icons and What They Mean


When the deck has been Published to the Boom Store a green cart icon will appear in the bottom right corner of the deck, showing the successful publish. (see image below) 


When the deck has been Privately Published a red briefcase icon will appear in the bottom right of the deck, symbolizing that they deck is in the creator's library ready to be used with their own students. (see image below) 



When a deck is featured in your store a blue star icon will appear in the bottom right of the deck, symbolizing that the deck can be found in the authors Featured tab in their store. (see image below) 



The 3 circled icons below are Accessibility Badges, they show what accessibility features your deck has. If you want more information, take a look at this article: Making your Self-Made Boom Decks Accessible



Related topics:


Find out How to Share, Clone, and Transfer Decks that You Create with fellow educators. 


Learn How to Create a Bundle of related Boom Cards Decks - especially useful for sellers.


Read tips on How to name your decks.



Join us for a Live webinar to learn how to use your Boom Learning account for live help from a Customer Sucess Specialist!